HERE AND THERE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOOD SUGAR SEX MAGIK

Along with another great album that's also having a significant anniversary, I can't believe this week marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

This is an album that had a real effect on me. It defined a very distinct time and place in my life.

I was already a huge fan of the Chili Peppers with Mothers Milk, and I was literally counting down the days for the release of Blood Sugar. A friend actually got an advance copy on Cassette(!) and I can distinctly remember the first time I listened to it. I was in Newcastle, studying design at University, living right on the beach in a tumbling down terrace. My girlfriend and I sat on our lounge room floor vying for the sweet spot directly in-between the speakers.

I remember being quite struck by how different it sounded. This wasn't the Chili Peppers I was expecting. The punk / funk was gone and it was more like funk and hip hop and had it had a 'rawness' to it. It sounded more like Public Enemy than say, Bad Brains. But by the end of that first listen I was totally and utterly hooked. An album so epically broad and appealing and yet so intimate and warm. It's an album that introduced me to a world of sounds, musical ideas and influences. Blood Sugar Sex Magik went on continuous rotation and quickly became the official soundtrack to my summer of 91-92.

I think the album still stands today. And although I feel old in saying this, it's now a 'classic', where sadly most (all?) Chili Pepper albums post Blood Sugar have not been.

But this post is really an excuse to put up Funky Monks a film documenting the recording of the album. It's easily one of my favourite rockumentaries. There is something immediate, organic and very cool about it. And perhaps because the album has become such a classic, Funky Monks serves as an oppotunity to be a fly on the wall to witness the alchemy taking place.

When I was in L.A a couple of years ago I went and found the mansion that Blood Sugar was recorded in and subsequently Funky Monks was filmed in. Listening to the album you can 'hear the rooms'. It gives the record such a unique ambience and tone.

I went and stood outside the house like a stalker it was some kind of sacred site. I peered through the cyclone fencing in the hope of hearing a distant echo of Blood Sugar being recorded, but all I could hear was traffic... just like at the very end of THIS TRACK (turn it up right at the end!)

LOCKED OFF

Who ever said "... you never finish a film edit you just abandon it..." knew the feeling of locking off the Beaconsfield cut over the weekend. But I think the feeling is always there whether you have 10 weeks or 10 months or  just 4 weeks as we did on this project. There is always something to tweak and explore and I don't think you could ever feel 100% 'finished'. This is what the film looks like... all 125 minutes of it.

Huge thanks to editor Andy Canny who was a pleasure to work along side. Andy put in so many extra hours to try and make the film as good as it could be in the time allocated. Over the many late nights, early mornings and a few of all nighters, I appreciated his objective eye and attention to detail.

Happy birthday Jim

No greater inspiration.

BEACONSFIELD. Again, Again.

Spent the weekend back down in Beaconsfield shooting pick-ups for the film. Locking off the cut this week...

Dear Photograph

I do love a good picture of a picture. And I do love this Tumblr site Dear Photograph. The visual mix of the past and present and the simple written thoughts create wonderfully whimsical and sentimental moments. I'm such a sucker for this stuff...

Thanks Dylan!

BOBBY D

Thanks to the cool guys who stuck these B/W photos of Bob up in their front windows in Carlton. I saw them as I walked past and they made me go home and listen to Dylan records.

DRIVE BY SHOOTINGS

They have been around for a while, but I'm still loving these seemingly random photographs of drivers by Andrew Bush. You can see all 66 Drives here.

WM3 ARE FREE. FINALLY!

So good hearing the West Memphis Three were finally released from prison over the weekend after 18 crazy years. I have kept up to date with the three guys over the last fourteen years or so after I first saw the documentary Paradise Lost back in 1997 at the Melbourne International Film Festival. I remember that night very clearly. I remember the cinema (The Forum) the seat I sat in (6 rows from the front, middle section, two in from the left aisle) and that I don't think I moved from the edge of my seat from the very first frame, till the last, I don't think I breathed either. Quite simply, Paradise Lost changed my life. It's one of the most, if not the most engaging film I've ever seen, it's the film that convinced me to quit my job and apply to film school.

If you haven't seen Paradise Lost, stop what you are doing right now and begin. Or better still buy it here and enjoy part two Paradise Lost 'Revelations' as well. I can't wait for Part three 'Revelatioins', which I'm sure will be getting a re-cut right about now. A trilogy 18 years in the making, and now with a happy ending!

Hard to imagine how these guys can adjust to any kind of 'normal life' after losing their childhoods and for one Damien, spending seventeen out of the last eighteen years on death row, for a crime he (and they) did not commit. I wish them all the best!

Tons of info about their release and the campaign to set them free over the years over at wm3.org

Also, where I be today without the soundtrack to Paradise Lost!?

IF NOT HERE, THEN WHERE?

HAIL RAISER

Congratulations to Amiel and team for their film Hail has been selected to screen at the Venice Film Festival next month. To help raise some much needed funds to get some of the essential cast and crew over to the festival they have organised an exhibition and fundraiser to be held in Melbourne this Friday night at Goodtime Studios from 6pm.

Photographs by me and Director of Photography Germain McMicking taken on set during the shoot will be on sale. (The prints look beautiful, are 30x20 inches and printed on archival paper. Limited to 5 editions each at $350 each. Bargain!) There will also be some poetry readings by star of the film Daniel P. Jones and music by The Midnight Juggernauts. Full details of the night are here...

BEACONSFIELD, WEEK 5 'Wrap!'

Wrapped the shoot last Friday! Our final week took me back again to Beaconsfield, Tasmania. This was my 4th trip, but this time I had some cast and (a reduced) crew in tow. As well as shooting some key sequences in the streets of Beaconsfield, we were most importantly able to shoot 400 meters below ground in the real Beaconsfield mine as well as some other scenes on the 'brace', the area underneath the now iconic triangular poppet head of the mine, including a recreation of the famous footage of the boys coming out after fourteen days trapped below ground.

I think overall we have done very well. From the start we approached the script like a feature film, even though we only had a 'TV' budget and schedule. In most parts I think we have succeeded and if we haven't it wasn't from not trying as hard as we could.

I'm so impressed with the crew that I have had around me. I'm looking forward to the time I can work with each and everyone of them again. On all levels they have delivered above and beyond what was expected. It's been a gruelling schedule to say the least and I know I could not have  made it through the shoot without a bunch of guys and gals around me who worked as hard and as fast as they did while still maintain a high level of creativity and craft. Thanks to everyone on the crew, from the production office, to the unit boys, right through and up to the heads of department!

Now into the edit... more fun and games...

GHOSTS FOR SALE

Saw these baby ghosts for sale during the week...

BEACONSFIELD, WEEK 4 'THE 925'

We have spent the last week shooting on sets built in a huge warehouse in Yarraville. The main set is 'the 925', which is the name of the drive (925 meters underground) that collapsed on Todd and Brant in the Beaconsfield mine in 2006. Even though we shot in a real mine, we could never create a 'collapsed mine' in a mine, so we had to build it. I've never really shot on sets, in fact I've made a point of not shooting on them, but I've learnt so much watching The 925 develop from inital recces and research, to rough sketches, to drafted plans and ultimately construction.

Production designer Jon Rhode has done an incredible job not only designing but also stretching our very small budget a very long way (over 50 meters end to end!) on this set and all the other smaller ones. Standing on the set of the 925 when it was lit and dripping with water felt alot like being in a real mine, I kept feeling like I needed to put my hard hat on.

A few more snaps after the break...

Just a sample of the bucket loads of fake rocks that had to be moulded, sculptured and painted...

MONSTER CHILDREN

Monster Children has been my favourite magazine for years. So I was pretty chuffed to be asked to do a couple pages in the latest issue (#31). They usually publish two different covers, which is cool in itself, but I was particularly excited to see both covers for this issue featuring past heroes of mine. Dennis Hopper on one cover as there is a great article about Hoppers photography and David Carson on the other, who when I was a graphic designer was like a god to me.

Featured  in the spread were a couple of snaps of my very own monster children, Ollie and Rosebud.